Leaders
by Petchricor
Summary: They finally get a taste of being leaders and they take it seriously. Each treat it different but none-the-less, they lead and are followed *SPOILERS FOR S10E19*


**First, I would like to say HA! I WAS RIGHT! IT IS RICHARD! TAKE THAT BITCHES! :3 ok, I'm done. Enjoy**

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Felix yawned and stretched as he sat up. He stopped instantly at the noise outside. The morning's here were usually quiet aside from some talking, but now he heard yelling and a bunch of men repeating something together. He grabbed his helmet and weapons, making sure he had everything before he decided to walk out of his room and see what was going on. He halted instantly at the sight and his jaw hit the bottom of his helmet in pure shock as their leader came up beside him, probably just as shocked.

"Come on! You can do better than that!" Tucker yelled as he ran backwards in front of two lines of men jogging in front of him around the canyon. "KNEES UP LADIES! WE AIN'T DOING GIRLY LAPS! Yeah! Like him, right there! Knees up high!" Tucker turned around in a swift motion and jogged forward in front of them. "COME ON LADIES! Pick up the pace!" Tucker jogged a little faster and the soldiers behind him picked up their pace with him "Come on! You know it by now!"

"When Master Chief was 101,  
He did PT just for fun.  
When Master Chief was 102,  
He did PT better than you.  
When Master Chief was 103,  
He did PT better than me.  
When Master Chief was 104,  
He did PT more and more.  
When Master Chief was 105,  
He did PT to stay alive.  
When Master Chief was 106,  
He did PT just for kicks.  
When Master Chief was 107,  
He up died and went to heaven.  
When Master Chief was 108,  
St. Peter let him in the pearly gates."

Felix couldn't stop the grin as the soldiers chanted with Tucker as they continued around the canyon. He turned and snickered as Grif paced in front of a line of soldiers doing push-ups in time with each other, he had his arms behind his back as he paced.

"What are we?!" he shouted at them.

"Marines!" the shouted back as they all did a pushup, then another and another and another.

"What will we do?!"

"Fight!"

"For what?!"

"Freedom," they said quietly, out of breath. Grif stopped pacing and turned to them, narrowing his eyes as he leaned down.

"I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" Grif screamed at them.

"FREEDOM!" they screamed as loud as they could while doing another pushup.

"DAMN RIGHT YOU ARE!" Grif stood up straight to pace again and started the lines over again. The voices fell into the background as Felix saw Simmons showing a few others how to properly clean and repair their weapons, each one listening intently to his words as he took apart a DMR and explained things. Felix jumped as a loud whistle sounded and everything went quiet, everyone turned to Caboose standing by the mess hall.

"BREAKFAST!" he screamed for everyone to hear. The others of his team nodded.

"Break," they said together and everyone dispersed off to the mess hall, talking to one another. Felix glanced over as one soldier fell to the ground from his pushups, rolling over to his back and breathing heavily. He watched as Tucker walked over to him.

"I'll-I'll be there in a minute sir, just catching my breath," he said weakly as he rolled over onto his hands.

"Come on, soldier," Tucker said, reaching a hand out to help him. "You need something to eat." The soldier took Tucker's hand and was pulled up to his feet. The two started to talk as they headed towards the mess hall. "Felix, you coming?" Felix was jarred out of his thoughts at Tucker's voice and after realizing what he said nodded and followed him and the others into the mess hall. Everyone sat down and started to talk as they had their breakfast, the pancakes made by Caboose apparently.

Once Felix had his food he looked around and upon spotting the Sim. Troopers he headed over to sit by them. They all greeted him and he smiled as he took a spot by Tucker, who scooted over a bit so he wasn't sitting right on the edge of the bench. He simply listened as they talked about this and that such as how training was going, what needed to be worked on, what was going well, and other things of the like.

"I miss, Wash," Caboose suddenly spoke and everyone went quiet as they looked at the younger soldier. He hadn't eaten any of his food and was just using his fork to play around with his eggs, a sad expression on his face. Simmons put a hand on his shoulder, everyone turning to watch as Tucker stood and left the room. Felix sighed and watched as the rest of the team followed him out, the rest of the soldiers in the room eying them curiously. Felix stood and followed them out with the best reassuring look and wave he could give them all as he did so.

He stopped in his tracks as he saw Tucker hugging Caboose tightly, both crying against each other while Grif and Simmons both stood off together so they didn't disturb them. Felix glanced over at Grif and Simmons to see that Simmons had a hand on Grif's shoulder as they talked to each other quietly. Felix turned back to Tucker and Caboose quietly as they began to speak.

"We'll get them back," Tucker told Caboose, holding him out with both hands on his shoulders. "But until then we have men to lead. We need to stay strong for them. Like Wash did for us after the crash, ok?" Caboose sniffled and nodded. Tucker hugged him once more. "Now come on, let's go finish breakfast." Felix smiled at them as they all headed back. He hadn't seen a team like this in forever, in fact he had never seen a team like this. He sighed and headed in for breakfast.

AΩ

Felix watched as the soldiers continued training with the Sim. Troopers, yelling out chants and answering yelled questions with even louder shouts. He grinned as they all took a short break, going to switch with other soldiers in another training session in a few minutes. They had been here only two days and they already had respect and obedience without even really trying to earn it, Felix hadn't seen anything like it. He watched as Tucker looked around at everyone, probably noticing just like he was that they were all tired. He shook his head a bit.

"HEY!" he shouted, everyone looking over. "Gather round! Felix, you too!" Felix chuckled and lept down from his perch, landing skillfully on the ground as he headed over with the others. "Ok, sit down." Everyone tilted their heads in a confused manner. "Go on, sit down." Slowly but surely everyone took a seat on the ground, even the other Sim. Troopers and in the end only Tucker stayed standing. He looked over at everyone and sighed, sitting down on the rock behind him. "I had a friend, and his name was Leonard Church. No no, not the Director of Project Freelancer. The Alpha AI, then Epsilon who was a memory of him. It's all very complicated, but those parts aren't important.

"Anyway, Church and I were great friends. We messed around, joked about killing each other, threw rocks at things, and all that great stuff. But, ya see, he left. After all we had been through, all the good and bad times we had, he just-he just left. Now, I'm not here to share my sob story with you, because I don't have one, and I'm not here to tell you about Church, how great a friend and leader he was. Because he wasn't." Caboose flinched a bit at that, everyone whispered. "Quiet." Silence. Tucker sat up a bit straighter. "Instead, I'm here to tell you about someone else. Agent Washington.

"Wash is a Freelancer, he's got a stick up his ass, he acts all high-and-mighty, and he for some reason though he could take command even though he had no right to the position. All in all, a terrible guy that I couldn't stand. But, that wasn't all he was. Hell, he was a better leader than Church ever was. Because, unlike Church, Wash actually cared about us. He wanted us to be the best we could be not because he was an asshole, but because he wanted us to be able to defend ourselves and there wasn't any other reason. The reason I'm telling you this is because I'm doing the same thing. I've heard you talking about how I'm a hardass and that I don't give a shit, but I do. You guys have really grown on me, and I just want you to be able to defend yourselves and save your planet and your families. Don't you want that?" Everyone started to whisper, then one man stood and everyone turned.

"My name, is Max," he said nervously, shaking a bit. "And, I'm 17. My dad died fighting for the war. Mr. Tucker is right, I do want that. I want to protect my sister and all the other families back home. And, this training is really hard and sometimes I just wanna quit and sometimes I think they really don't care and are just doing this for themselves. But, look at what they're doing. If they didn't care they wouldn't be training us this hard, would they? I mean, I-I know that's not the best logic for that but...it makes sense, right?" Everyone whispered and Felix looked up at the boy, his age striking him hard. Felix stood and everyone turned to him.

"You all know me, I'm Felix and I really actually don't give a shit. This isn't my home, I don't know anyone that lives here, and I'm not trying to train you. But, I'm not here to talk about me. I'm here to talk about them," Felix stated, gesturing to the Sim. Troopers. "These guys, even though they deny it, are the best group of people I have /ever/ met. I have never seen a team that can insult each other on a daily basis and still want to hang around each other. They stick together, they do all that they can, and they have more heart than anyone you will ever meet in your lifetime. You can't trust me much, but you can trust them." Everyone turned to the Sim. Troopers.

"We will do all that we can," Simmons said quietly. They all nodded and Tucker stood, the rest soon joined him. Tucker glanced over at Simmons and turned to the others.

"All right, ladies! Storytime's over! Get your gear and let's get to work!" Tucker screamed.

"SIR YES SIR!" They all shouted together, saluting him and going off to continue training. Two lines formed in front of Tucker and he nodded sharply.

"Let's go ladies!" he shouted, running backwards with him in front. "Lift those knees maggots! No girly laps!" Tucker continued to run backwards and Felix watched. "Come on, men! Lift those knees! Do you wanna do girly laps?!"

"SIR NO SIR!"

"THEN MOVE IT SOLDIERS!" Felix chuckled and walked up into his room, climbing up from there to his perch so he could watch the rest of the training and keep a look out for any signs of trouble. He closed his eyes as they started to chant;

"When Master Chief was 101,  
He did PT just for fun.  
When Master Chief was 102,  
He did PT better than you.  
When Master Chief was 103,  
He did PT better than me.  
When Master Chief was 104,  
He did PT more and more.  
When Master Chief was 105,  
He did PT to stay alive.  
When Master Chief was 106,  
He did PT just for kicks.  
When Master Chief was 107,  
He up died and went to heaven.  
When Master Chief was 108,  
St. Peter let him in the pearly gates."

"COME ON LADIES! PICK UP THE PACE!" Felix opened one eye to watch as Tucker and the other soldiers sped up as they ran around the canyon. He watched Grif yell at the soldiers doing the push-ups and looked as Simmons showed them how to fix a warthog. He had a lot to teach them. He blinked as he saw Caboose doing something. What could he be teaching them? Felix leaned forward a bit to see what he was doing and stared in surprise as he showed them different parts of the armor. He didn't know what purpose that served, but perhaps they decided not only to give Caboose something to do but an easy class to give the soldiers rest. He chuckled and turned to watch the training.

They were really something. He just hoped they'd be ready in time.

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**And that's a wrap! The chant is an actual military chat by the way, I didn't come up with that. Just fyi. Also, wasn't that episode badass?! I'm so excited for next season I can't even express it! :D  
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**Thanks for reading, please review, and have a bow chicka bow wow day!**

**Petchricor, QotG, signing off ;)**


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